Young Conservatives Group Pressures GOP on Gay Marriage

A new effort is being launched to try to persuade the Republican Party to drop its opposition to same-sex marriage from the party’s platform, a steep climb that would require overcoming social conservatives who have dominated the GOP’s position on the issue.

The effort, called Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, is a project of Freedom to Marry, which is campaigning to win over Republicans to the issue in hopes of building a broader national consensus in favor of gay marriage rights.

Backers include GOP strategist Margaret Hoover as well as Abby Hunstman and Meghan McCain, both daughters of prominent Republicans.

The effort, which hopes to raise and spend $1 million over the next three years, plans to travel to four states that stage early presidential primary contests to make its case to Republicans. They want the party to delete several passages declaring marriage to be a man and a woman and related passages and instead adopt a statement taking no position on gay marriage rights but celebrating the value of marriage as a “fundamental, personal freedom.”

The proposed language further states: “We recognize that there are diverse and sincerely held views on civil marriage within the Party… [we] commit our party to respect for all families and fairness and freedom for all Americans.”

Evan Wolfson, who heads Freedom to Marry, said the effort would include staff to organize supporters, travel for supporters to attend GOP meetings, polling and possibly TV ads. He added that the overall effort is part of a larger strategy to influence the Supreme Court, which is likely to consider one of several cases challenging the constitutionality of gay marriage bans over the next few years.

“We are absolutely working in every way we can to show America is ready for the freedom to marry, and that includes, increasingly, Republicans,” he said.

The move would have some degree of precedent. Last weekend, the Republican Party in Nevada voted to strip opposition to gay marriage, as well as abortion, from the state party platform.

The Republican Party platform is written by a committee of delegates to the quadrennial national convention. Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, declined to guess how the effort would go over inside the GOP.

“It’s up to the delegates to affirm our platform every four years,” he said. “The principles of the platform that was passed in Tampa remains the platform we operate by and will until the next convention.”

Support for same-sex marriage has grown nationally in recent years, particularly among young people. A recent Pew Research Center poll found six in 10 young Republicans support gay and lesbian marriage rights. In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, the Republican National Committee commissioned a report on how the party can grow its appeal. It concluded that the party’s position on gay rights may be a barrier for many younger voters.

“We do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view,” it said. “For many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be.”

But soon after that report was issued, in April 2013, the Republican National Committee overwhelmingly approved a resolution reaffirming its opposition to gay marriage.

Also in response to the RNC report, more than a dozen conservative leaders warned that social conservatives would abandon the party if the GOP does not maintain its opposition to same-sex marriage.

“We respectfully warn GOP Leadership that an abandonment of its principles will necessarily result in the abandonment of our constituents to their support,” they said in a letter.

Steve Duprey, a Republican committeeman from New Hampshire who said he was one of the few to oppose the 2013 resolution, welcomed the Freedom to Marry effort and said the discussion is good for his party. “Regardless of how it turns out, it shows we’re open to talking about it,” he said.

But he said there is currently “overwhelming support for the platform as it exists” and that changing the language would be “a very heavy lift.”

In an earlier interview about the party’s position on the issue, Rich Galen, a GOP strategist who supports gay marriage, said the platform is among the hardest things to change and predicted the GOP’s official stance on marriage would not change in his lifetime.

“Political party platforms always appeal to the edges,” he said. “Those are often the most ideologically driven.”

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